


A paradox to blame

by phalangine



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Canon Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 10:44:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10897719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phalangine/pseuds/phalangine
Summary: Jim's cursed to die, and Bones specializes in black magic.





	A paradox to blame

**Author's Note:**

> title from leonard cohen's _you want it darker_

Jim is nineteen and dying.

"It's called a blood curse." The doctor shakes her head and gives Jim a sympathetic look. "The man who killed your father didn't just sentence him to death- he cursed everyone who shares his blood to die as well. It's very powerful magic, and this form is definitely Romulan."

"And the cure?" Jim asks. Curses always have nasty cures that usually involve disgusting things like drinking your own blood or bathing in dead beetles.

The doctor lets out a breath. "There is no cure. No one has ever broken a blood curse."

 

**_xx_ **

 

Jim has a grand mal seizure on his first night at the Academy. His roommate freaks out, but the guy's boyfriend is smart enough to call the clinic.

The doctor who's checking Jim's vitals when he wakes up is familiar. Scruff and scowl and an air of unhappiness... His name doesn't come immediately, but an echo of his words does.

"Bones," Jim croaks. "How are you?"

"Better than you," Bones says mildly. He shines a light in Jim's eyes. "That wasn't your first seizure, was it?"

Not even close. "Nah."

"Your chart says you've got a blood curse."

Jim looks away. Most people make the connection between the Kelvin and Jim's curse on their own, and Bones is probably smarter than all of the people Jim has met in bars put together. He doesn't need to see Bones put the pieces together, so he studies the bracelet around Bones' left wrist instead. To his surprise, it's black with a single strand of purple threaded through.

"You practice the black arts?" he asks, startled.

Bones quirks a brow. "They aren't illegal."

"Yeah, but..."

Bones' brow quirks higher.

Jim shrugs.

"There's a use for every kind of magic," Bones says simply. "You just have to be smart about how you go about it."

Jim doesn't entirely believe him, but it's Bones' soul. If he wants to lose it, far be it from Jim to tell him no.

 

**_xx_ **

 

"You know," Jim says two weeks later, lying flat on his back on the floor beside Bones' bed.

Bones, who had been studying, sighs. "I know what?"

"You should switch."

"Switch what?"

"Your specialty," Jim says, tapping at his wrist.

Bones snorts. "That's not how it works."

"How does it work, then? I'm just a poor, uninitiated flatliner."

To Jim's surprise, his friend actually puts his textbook away and swings his legs over the side of the bed. There's a dark look in his eyes as he says, "Magic manifests at a critical moment. You don't choose it- it chooses you."

"So you were chosen by soullessness?" Jim asks.

"That's an old wives' tale," Bones says sharply. "All magic requires balance. Black magic is just more upfront with its price."

"As in, every time you use it, it kills you."

"Balance," Bones repeats with a shrug. "The universe wants its pound of flesh."

Jim frowns and considers Bones' ceiling.

 

**_xx_ **

 

Bones can't save everyone. Even with magic, even with black magic, there are some people whose hands he just has to hold as they die. Usually they accept the guidance.

Usually.

"You're late," Jim observes one night. Bones was due back two hours ago.

"Got hit," Bones grunts. He steps into the light, and that's when Jim sees the blood. It's all over his head, matted in his hair. "It took a while to get all the shards out."

"What did they hit you with?" Jim asks, unable to look away. His stomach feels like it's tying itself in knots.

"Lamp."

"Why?"

Bones shakes his wrist. "I told him I couldn't stop his wife's cancer. He saw the identifier and figured out that, yeah, technically, I could save his wife."

"But you'd die doing it," Jim finishes.

"Not necessarily. I'd knock a few decades off, but I'd probably survive."

"But you'd be saving her life. Isn't it a life for a life?"

Tugging his shirt over his head, Bones makes a seesawing motion with his free hand. "She isn't dying immediately. What I'd be doing is preventing a death rather than reversing one."

"That doesn't make sense."

Bones gives him a look that says he thinks Jim is stupendously unintelligent. "It's magic, Jim. It doesn't have to make sense."

 

**_xx_ **

 

There's a kind of magic, Jim thinks, in watching Bones fall apart.

That was a while ago, though. Bones is lying on his back now, his breath still coming hard. There's sweat all over him, beads of it glistening in the low light. Jim watches him breathe and feels his chest grow tight.

He puts a hand around the wrist with the bracelet. He doesn't want to remember that it's in Bones' nature to save. He doesn't want to think of Bones trading his life for someone else's.

He wants to be selfish. For once in his life, Jim wants to be able to keep what he's found.

 

**_xx_ **

 

The symptoms get worse when they're confronted with Nero. Jim has another seizure, the worst of his life, not that it stops Spock from tossing him out the moment it passes.

Bones objects- of course he does- but he isn't the captain. He tries to fend off the guards, but Bones is no fighter. They easily pin his arms to his sides and lift him off his feet, letting him thrash ineffectually while Jim is hauled into a pod.

After some surprise cardio and a quick save, he meets Spock- except Spock is old and he says he and Jim are friends. And his Jim didn't have the blood curse, he says sadly.

Jim ought to have known better than to hope.

 

**_xx_ **

 

Killing Nero doesn't stop the blood curse.

 

**_xx_ **

 

Bones kisses him hard. He pins Jim down and leaves bruising kisses down his neck and all over his chest. Jim doesn't fight him. Bones is still shaking, still upset about almost losing Jim.

They don't fuck that night. Bones is too strung out to stay awake longer than it takes to reassure himself that Jim is alive. He passes out fully dressed in Jim's bed, arms wrapped tight around Jim, and for the first time, Jim doesn't mind the weight holding him down.

 

**_xx_ **

 

In the wake of Khan's destruction, Jim dies saving the crew.

 

**_xx_ **

 

He wakes up two weeks later feeling like seven kinds of shit.

It was Spock who saved him.

"Uhura and I had something to do with it, too, you know," Bones grouches.

Jim smiles up at him. Of course Bones had something to do with it.

 

**_xx_ **

 

It takes another week for Jim to realize just how much Bones had to do with it.

"It didn't work, did it?"

Bones looks up from his book. "Pardon?"

"The transfusion you gave me. Khan's blood. It didn't save my life." Jim stops, wets his lips. "You did."

Bones tilts his head. "How'd you figure it out?"

"Your bracelet. It's all black now."

"So it is."

"I know it was a life for a life this time. So how come you're alive?"

"Gee, Jim. Try not to sound so happy."

_"Bones."_

"All right, all right." He scratches at his jaw. "I already told you magic is all about balance."

"I remember."

"Well, black magic has a funny loophole in the no killing clause. I can't just blast people to death like other users, but, under certain circumstances, I can sort of nudge them to death."

"And that's how you were able to pull me back," Jim guesses. "You just switched things around. But how did you balance that?"

Bones nods. "My father was sick, and he'd treated enough people to know he didn't want to waste away the way they had. So he got me to help." He looks down at his wrist. "His life was the purple thread. I traded him for you."

Jim swallows hard.

Bones gives him a crooked smile and pats his shoulder. "You'll find that death wasn't the only thing I fought off, by the way. It was a pain in the ass, but your curse is gone now. Goddamn Romulans and their obnoxious incantations."

 

**_xx_ **

 

Jim does a little intel gathering after that. That is, he corners a number of Bones' staff and questions them until they admit what he already suspects.

"You aren't just a black magic user," he accuses over dinner. Bones is sitting across from him, determinedly making his way through replicated lasagna. He doesn't react to the accusation at first, just shovels another bite into his mouth.

It takes him ages to chew and swallow, every second of which Jim spends sitting on the edge of his seat.

Eventually, Bones finishes. He looks Jim in the eye, gaze steady, and says, "No, I'm not."

"You're one of the strongest black magic users in the known universe."

Bones shrugs. "That's what they assume."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't relevant." Bones sets his fork down. "Effective magic isn't about strength. It's about capacity. Mine was never evaluated, so for all I know, I'm one of the weakest users."

"You brought me back from the dead."

"That wasn't me. That was my father."

"Bones..."

"I will serve you, and Starfleet, until I die, Jim. I'm already CMO. What more would you have me do?" Jim doesn't have an answer, and Bones knows that. "I think I'll stay in my quarters tonight."

That said, he gets up and leaves.

It takes Jim a long time to remember there are other people within earshot and realize that their relationship is no longer on the down low.

He can't find it in him to mind.

 

**_xx_ **

 

Bones comes back after a couple days. He always does. Jim can't seem to shake him.

Instead of being an annoyance, Bones' inevitable return feels like something Jim can count on. Something he should count on.

"Keenser has another cold," Bones says wearily as he climbs under the covers. He didn't ask if he was welcome, just kicked off his boots and lifted the blankets. "Damn alien nearly melted me with a sneeze."

Jim smiles to himself and reaches over Bones' side to take hold of one arm. He slides his hand up until he feels the brush of Bones' bracelet. He runs his thumb over it, quietly feeling the strange, not quite corporeal texture.

"You saved me," he says softly.

"Always will," Bones says, just as soft.

Jim presses a kiss to the back of Bones' neck. "I don't doubt it."


End file.
